TRANSFER DEADLINE DAY: Will any big names sign on the dotted line for your club? Here are five reasons to give deadline day a wide berth.
Luckily, this day comes around just twice a year otherwise I’d go and hide in a dark room and club my head against the wall more often.
Yes, transfer deadline day really is that annoying.
Crammed full of fairytale hope, hoax calls, fictitious player sightings, lamentable TV coverage and social media nonsense you have more than enough reasons to avoid this most horrendous of footballing days.
Granted, a good deadline day does come around – but only rarely. One of the few truly enjoyable deadline days came in the January 2011 transfer window when big-money signings Fernando Torres, Luis Suarez, David Luiz and Andy Carroll were recruited in a day’s spending worth £135m.
Maybe fairytales do happen? Only if you’re a Disney fan.
Just to squash those pipe dreams (and bring ourselves back to reality) here are five good reasons to give transfer deadline day a miss.
- Watch the football!
Unusually on transfer deadline day there are actual football matches being played. Come 7:45pm everyone’s attention should be well and truly on those, rather than the guff of transfer rumours.
Most exciting of all is the Liverpool vs Chelsea match, where Reds boss Jürgen Klopp is under serious threat of losing his job should Antonio Conte’s league leaders secure three points at Anfield.
A win for the Blues would leave Klopp’s men 13 points off top spot and spell Liverpool’s fourth defeat in 11 days – a run which has seen the Merseysiders eliminated from both domestic cup competitions.
So let’s all watch the football, not the rumours, yeah?
- Sky Sports News
If you’re a Sky producer, there is clearly nothing more exciting than watching unfortunate reporters loitering outside training grounds sniffing out the newest transfer rumours from clubs across the country – often in the pouring rain and freezing cold.
Sky have got transfer deadline day so wrong it’s just painful. Who wants to see hours of repetitive ‘breaking news’, unsubstantial updates, snazzy graphics and theatrical presenting?
Their self-indulgent coverage has gone too far. Fair enough, if a big-money signing is made let’s pay attention, but until that happens it’s just not worth our time.
- False rumours
These days, with smartphone use in overdrive anyone can be a transfer scout or even a journalist. All it takes is some intrepid fan rocking up to their favourite club’s ground and lucking out with a chance ‘sighting’ of a big-name ‘transfer target’.
Of course, over-enthusiastic fans aren’t just to blame, it’s mostly newspapers. Nonsense rumours, unconfirmed reports, plausible transfer suggestions and the madness of the Chinese Super League just fuel the imaginations of transfer deadline day nutters.
- Social media
Nothing says “this is a shambles” like a good-old meme. Whether it be Harry Redknapp’s face photoshopped onto Del Boy’s body, or Jim White’s most ‘memorable’ quotes, social media will usually rip the proverbial out of deadline day.
That said, social media is a rumours wasteland on deadline day, full of time-wasting reports, gossip and users looking to score a few retweets and likes.
Even worse are the users that post ‘breaking news’ from clickbait ‘football news’ accounts and profiles, taking their reports as gospel. Can’t we just watch the football now?
- Phone-ins
Football phone-ins are all about opinion and should be encouraged. Better still, fans can have their say on which players they’d like to see move to their respective clubs.
But do we really have to sit through an analysis of the transfer window? And what about the pundits that are regurgitated from show to show without lending any insight into the transfer rumours that are likely to hold true?
Sure, if a former player sheds light on what deadline day is like from a player’s perspective that’s some interesting background, but should washed-up pundits be given a chance to say how clubs should go about their transfer business?
It’s all a matter of taste, but I’d rather see more input from the fans that pay to watch their clubs each week rather than the players that were paid a fortune for to play for them.
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